Wallace Shawn Movies
The son of an editor for the New Yorker, the diminutive comedic actor Wallace Shawn speaks with a recognizable lisp that is appropriate for his frequent portrayals of little irate men. A graduate of both Harvard and Oxford University, he has taught several courses in English and struggled as a playwright in the early '70s; in 1977 he translated Machiavelli's The Mandrake. Shawn broke into films soon after, building a successful career as a supporting actor to help fund his playwriting. He debuted in two of the best films of 1979: Woody Allen's Manhattan and Bob Fosse's All That Jazz. In 1981, he co-wrote the semi-autobiographical My Dinner With André, a talky comedy starring himself and theater director André Gregory in a dinner conversation, directed by Louis Malle. The movie was acclaimed by critics, but many audiences grew tired during its two-hour running time. After this personal project, Shawn would build a career out of playing brief but surprisingly memorable roles in a long list of movies. One of his most warmly remembered appearances was in 1987 as Vizzini, the inept leader of a misfit criminal gang, in The Princess Bride. The same year, he supplied the heroic voice for the Masked Avenger in Woody Allen's Radio Days. Taking the next step to straight voice acting, he lent his distinctive speech to the animated features The Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and both installments of Toy Story. He also continued to work with Woody Allen throughout the next decade in the films Shadows and Fog and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Taking his quirky persona to the small screen, Shawn had several guest-star appearances on TV shows like Taxi, Murphy Brown, and The Cosby Show, but he didn't have his own reoccurring character until he reprised his feature-film role of Mr. Hall for the ABC sitcom version of Clueless. He quickly followed that with the role of Zek on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Throughout his acting career, Shawn has managed to continue writing successful plays, and eventually adapted one of them, The Designated Mourner, for a feature film in 1997. After a few brief appearances in some forgettable films in the late '90s, he gained some larger roles in TV movies and miniseries. In 2002, he played the publishing boss Mr. Gelb for the "Greta" story in Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits. He then joined a large cast of other comedians for Danny DeVito's crime comedy Duplex in 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide- 2010
Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo co-director Lee Unkrich strikes out on his own with this installment into the popular computer-animated series detailing the adventures of wide-eyed cowboy doll Woody and space-ranger action figure Buzz Lightyear. Oscar-nominated scribe Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) handles screenwriting duties. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A wicked warlock has cast a diabolical spell over Mystery, Inc. gang, and now it's up to Shaggy and Scooby-Doo to save the day. Join the lovable Great Dane and his easy frightened friend as they attempt to track down the Amazing Krudsky (voice of Wayne Knight), a second rate carnival magician who's using magic stolen from Princess Fairy Willow (voice of Hayden Panettiere) to transform everyone into grotesque Halloween monsters. If the dynamic duo can just hop on the Grim Reaper Railroad and make their way to Halloween land before Krudsky, perhaps they can retrieve the Goblin scepter from the Goblin King (voice of Tim Curry) and save the day. It's not an easy assignment, but fortunately Scooby and Shaggy have a little help from a friendly Jack O'Lantern and a flying broomstick that takes them on the ride of their lives. Additional voice talents include Jay Leno, Lauren Bacall, Wally Shawn, and Russi Taylor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, (more)
Two lifelong pals living in New York City discover that sometimes the only way to remain friends is to grow apart in this semi-autobiographical drama from screenwriter/director Frank Whaley. Owen (Freddie Prinze, Jr. is an aspiring filmmaker who frequently spends the early hours of the evening with his girlfriend Lynn (Jamie-Lynn Siegler) before ducking out to watch best-friend Ray (Chris Klein)'s provide the beats for his popular bar band. By day Owen may work at the local photomat, but when night falls he strives to forget about his dead end job by drinking the town dry and raising hell with Owen and company. The late night hours, when Owen and Ray inevitably end up at raucous parties with uninhibited women and plenty of booze, are usually when things get really interesting though. One day, after Owen receives word that his latest film has been invited to screen in a popular festival, the lives of these two best friends begin to travel down divergent paths. Now Ray begins to see himself in competition with Lynn for Owens attentions, and the death of a friend's father prompts both friends to stand back and take stock of their lives. Later, after Owen and Ray meet actor Wallace Shawn at the airport, the unlikely trio strikes up an amiable friendship. Trouble soon arises, however, when Owen discovers that Ray has been posing as Shawn's son and the two part ways on unfriendly terms. But as with most lifelong friends it's only a matter of time before Owen and Ray find their way back into one another's company, and eighteen months apart can work wonders for healing old wounds. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Klein, Freddie Prinze, Jr., (more)
Director Carlo Gabriel Nero brings actor/playwright Wallace Shawn's controversial study of the growing chasm between the first and third world from stage to screen with this tale of a privileged woman whose reality suddenly suffers a profound shift. A bourgeois woman awakens suffering from a particularly intense fever and trapped in an unidentified third-world country. Later, upon venturing out into her war-torn surroundings, the once-wealthy woman is forced to contend with such unfamiliar issues as luxury, culpability, and revolution. Angelina Jolie, Joely Richardson, and Michael Moore co-star in a drama that employs animation and thought-provoking first-person monologues to explore the concept of bourgeois privilege. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Moore, (more)
- 2004
Just before Christmas, idealistic greeting-card writer Allen Karroll (Tom Everett Scott) cooks up a "special moment" wherein he will propose to his sweetheart Carrie (Deanna Milligan) in a public place before thousands of oohing and aahing spectators. Alas, Carrie turns him down flat, so thoroughly humiliating Allen that he ends up hating the Yuletide season. Not long afterward, Allen is visited by four disreputable-looking ghosts, including a very hip Jacob Marley (or is it Bob Marley?) Can it be that our hero has morphed into a latter-day incarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge? Not quite: All of the ghosts have come to the wrong address. Turns out that the real Scrooge of the piece is Alex's nasty next-door neighbor Zeb Rosecog (Wallace Shawn), who'd once been CEO for the company which employs Alex. His curiosity aroused, Allen overcomes his intense dislike for Zeb to investigate the source of the man's misanthropy--and in so doing learns a lot about himself. A clever spin on an all-too-familiar fable, Karroll's Christmas was produced for cable, and was originally telecast December 14, 2004 by the A&E network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on a novel by Jack Schaefer (writer of Shane), and previously filmed theatrically in 1970, the made-for-cable Monte Walsh is the still-timely saga of a dying way of life. Monte Walsh (Tom Selleck) and his friends are cowboys and bronco busters, plying their trade in the Wyoming Territory of 1892. Alas, the advance of civilization has all but rendered Monte and his comrades obsolete -- and with the increasing corporate buy-ups of Wyoming land, these relics of the Old West have practically nowhere else to go. Should Monte continue as before, seeking out the last of the wide open spaces, or should he follow the advice of his sweetheart Martine (Isabella Rosselini) and settle down in a steady job -- say, as a trick rider-roper in the traveling Wild West Show owned by impresario Colonel Wilson (Wallace Shawn)? This elegiac drama debuted January 17, 2003, on the TNT network as part of the cable service's "100 Years of Westerns" celebration. The teleplay is partially credited to one of the scripters of the 1970 film, Lukas Heller, who died in 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Selleck, Keith Carradine, (more)
Kelsey Grammer stars as Nick St. Nicholas, a Miami-based playboy philanthropist who is about to make his life complete by wedding the girl of his dreams, gorgeous TV weathercaster Heidi Gardelle (Elaine Hendrix). Not known to the general public is that the profligate St. Nicholas is really the son of none other than Santa Claus (Charles Durning)--or, as the jolly old elf is known in this story, Nicholas XXX. Expected to take over the "family business" at the North Pole before his father's power fades, Nick balks, choosing instead to remain in Miami, where he is about to launch his latest charity at the behest of his fiancee Heidi. By the time he realizes that his "dream girl" is actually a mercenary nightmare, Nick finds himself besieged by a vindictive INS agent (Colin Cunningham)--and racked with guilt over the gloomy fate awaiting his father and the North Pole toy factory. It is up to Santa's head elf Jasper (Brian Bedford) and Nick's lovely Latino cook Lorena (Ana Ortiz) to come to the rescue. Armed with a surprising number of sexually suggestive jokes for an ostensible family film, Meet St. Nick was coproduced by Disney Films and Hallmark Entertainment, and was first broadcast as an episode of ABC's Wonderful World of Disney anthology on November 17, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelsey Grammer
- 2001
Lois (voice of Alex Borstein) learns that her sister Carol (voice of Carol Kane) is having a baby and that her husband has left her. Lois and Peter (voice of Seth MacFarlane) go to visit Carol, asking Quagmire (MacFarlane) to baby-sit. When Carol anxiously tells Peter that she's gone into labor, Peter warns her, "You let the kid start calling the shots now and you're screwed." Peter stops at the drive-thru on the way to the hospital. When Lois reminds him that Carol is having a baby, he adds a Kid's Meal to his order. At the hospital, the doctor injures himself, and Peter is called upon to deliver the baby. The experience leaves Peter yearning to experience fatherhood again, and he and Lois decide to have another child. When Stewie (MacFarlane) learns of their plan, he's horrified. He remembers "what happened to Bobby when they added Cousin Oliver to The Brady Bunch." "As God is my witness," he vows, "from this day forward, Peter and Lois shall not conceive." Stewie sets about thwarting his parents' intimacy by crawling into their bed at night. When he attempts to frame Peter by using Lois' lipstick to stain his shirt collars, he gets distracted by his reflection in the mirror and gets busted. "All this time spent trying to keep people from having sex!" he cries. "Now I know how the Catholic Church feels." Eventually, Stewie shrinks himself and his laser gun-equipped "spaceship" to near-microscopic size, and enters Peter with the intention of making all-out war on his sperm. But he's surprised to find a formidable opponent (voice of Wallace Shawn) in one of Peter's seed. This episode features the voice of frequent contributor Gary Cole as Mike Brady. Cole also played Brady in Brady Bunch feature films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
The remarkable life and tragic death of Marilyn Monroe has fascinated film fans for decades, but this two-part TV miniseries, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, takes an unusual approach, using dramatic license (the film announces itself as a work of fiction using the names of real people) to look inside the minds of Monroe and those around her to ponder the circumstances of her rise and fall. Young Norma Jeane Baker (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is raised by single mother Gladys (Patricia Richardson), who is unstable, uncaring, and poorly equipped to deal with the responsibilities of parenthood. As Norma Jeane grows up without a father and with little affection from her mother, she suffers from a poor self-image and craves attention; when she grows into a beautiful young woman who is unusually attractive to men, she falls into a number of romances and a short-lived marriage in search of the approval she needs so desperately. When Norma Jeane (now played by Poppy Montgomery) turns 20, she meets a photographer, Otto (Eric Bogosian), who sees star potential in her beauty. Otto's cheesecake pictures catch the eye of I.E. Shinn (Wallace Shawn), an agent who in turned introduces her to Mr. R (Richard Roxburgh), the head of a movie studio, who offers to make Norma Jeane a star -- if she would be willing to have sex with him. Norma Jeane unenthusiastically agrees, and Mr. R proves good to his word; renamed Marilyn, she becomes an major film star and an international sex symbol. But the adulation proves to be a poor substitute for the love she craves, and as she falls into relationships with any man who treats her with a modicum of respect -- including a famous baseball player (Titus Welliver) and an acclaimed author (Griffin Dunne) -- her life begins to spiral out of control. Blonde also stars Ann-Margret, Kirstie Alley, and Patrick Dempsey; the series first aired May 13 and May 16, 2001, on the CBS television network. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Poppy Montgomery, Patricia Richardson, (more)
- 1999
Several noted American actors dot this autobiographical feature from Hungarian filmmaker Gabe Von Dettre (also know as Gabor Dettre) about the difficulty of getting a break in the movie industry. Brad Dourif plays a filmmaker who often talks to the audience about the main question on his mind -- why can't he get a project financed when so many people with less talent and fewer credentials are working steadily? This film (which was many years in production, as evidenced by the presence of several actors who are no longer living) was shown as part of the 1999 Hungarian Film Week Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Dourif, Kathleen Gati, (more)
- 1999
A woman is found dead at the bottom of a cliff the day before her wedding. It is up to Ballard (Callie Thorne) and Bayliss (Kyle Secor) to determine if the woman killed herself, or if she was murdered. In another investigation, Sheppard (Michael Michele) and Mike (Giancarlo Esposioto) find themselves with no shortage of suspects when a loud and obnoxious film fan is murdered in a movie theater. And on the domestic front, Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto) learns that he is about to become a grandfather. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Belzer, Giancarlo Esposito, (more)
- 1998
In this made-for-television outing, a man's life changes dramatically after an enigmatic stranger shows up and convinces him to build an ark. To complete his bizarre task, the poor fellow must undergo cruel bouts of ostracism from friends and neighbors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Danza, Wallace Shawn, (more)
- 1997
Wallace Shawn returns as Stuart Best, former "FYI" anchor, former tobacco lobbyist, former whistleblower, current security guard--and longtime thorn in the side of Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen). After Best is publicly lauded for his heroics during a museum fire, Murphy secures an exclusive interview. All Murphy wants to do is make amends with Best during the broadcast; instead, her pointed questions lead the authorities to wonder whether the "hero" actually started the fire himself! Adam West makes a cameo appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Blacklisted by the Ferengi Commerce Authority, Quark returns to his home planet hoping to find comfort and solace in the arms of his mother Ishka (Cecily Adams). But things quickly turn sour when Quark discovers that Ishka is having a clandestine romance with Ferengi leader Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn). At first shocked by this indiscretion, the enterprising Quark soons figures out a way to turn the situation to his advantage. Originally broadcast April 21, 1997, "Ferengi Love Songs" was written by Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
In case there's any doubt, this episode is a sly takeoff of the notorious 60 Minutes debacle later dramatized in the 1999 film The Insider. Contentious ex-"FYI" anchorman Stuart Best (Wallace Shawn) returns to his former stamping grounds as a Man on a Mission. A former lobbyist for the tobacco industry, Best has "seen the light" and intends to blow the whistle on Big Tobacco. Murphy (Candice Bergen) is eager to tackle the story on the air, but the network backs down in the face of a huge lawsuit. Ultimately, it is Jim (Charles Kimbrough) who attempts to carry Best's anti-tobacco message to the public--with shocking results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Wallace Shawn returns as Stuart Best, the original anchorman for "FYI". As obnoxious as he was behind the news desk, Best is even more so now that he is a Republican congressman--especially when he goes out of his way to humiliate Murphy (Candice Bergen) in public. Thirsting for revenge, Murphy arranges to "grill" Stuart on her TV show--but the results are surprising for both parties! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Wallace Shawn makes a return appearance in the role of Zek, the Ferengi Grand Nagus. While visiting DS9, Zek unexpectedly announces that he intends to abolish the Ferengi's greedy ways. This naturally arouses the suspicions of the station's resident Ferengi rogue Quark, who uncovers the facts behind Zek's uncharacteristic behavior. A subplot concerns Dr. Bashir's nomination for an important Federation award. Originally telecast on February 20, 1995, "Prophet Motive" was written by Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and directed by Rene Auberjonois. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
On the occasion of "FYI"'s 17th anniversary, the network hires the show's original anchorman Stuart Best (Wallace Shawn) for a guest appearance. This does not sit well with Jim (Charles Kimbrough), Frank (Joe Regalbuto) and Murphy (Candice Bergen), who so despised Best during his first go-round that they arranged to have him fired. Not surprisingly, the trio intends to do the same thing when Best returns--at least until Murphy discovers that she may owe her entire career to her much-hated former colleague. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
For the second week in a row, the duplicitous Quark is the center of attention. This time out, the Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) appoints Quark the leader of the Ferengi financial empire. His exultation over this lofty position is dampened somewhat when Quark finds that he has been targetted for assassination. Scripted by Ira Steven Behr from an original story by David Livingston (who also directed), "The Nagus" was originally telecast March 21, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Despite his spotty previous record, Quark is recruited by Grand Nagus Zek (Wallace Shawn) for the next session of Gamma Quadrant Negotiations. This occurs just after Quark has himself recruited a new partner. Little does he realize that his male cohort is actually a disguised female Ferengi outlaw named Pel (Helene Udy). He also doesn't suspect that Pel has fallen in love with him, a fact that could prove ruinous for them both. Scripted by Ira Steven Behr from a story by Hilary J. Bader, "Rules of Acquistion" originally aired November 6, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
